Steam valve problem triggers fire alarm at Queen Elizabeth Hospital

No one injured when valve released too much steam

No one was hurt when a valve let too much steam into the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s air system around 7 a.m. Tuesday.

Terry Campbell, the hospital’s director of support services, said a problem with a valve in an air-handling unit that supplies the hospital’s main lobby allowed excess humidity to escape, which triggered a fire alarm and a code red.

There was never any risk to patients and nothing would have been visible to anyone in the hospital, Campbell said.

“The humidity was essentially inside the unit and luckily the sensor in the unit worked as was designed and triggered the alarm.”

Firefighters responded to the alarm but weren’t needed and part of the hospital was shut down so no one could enter the building until the problem was fixed, which took about 35 or 40 minutes.

The malfunctioning equipment was in a maintenance area known as the penthouse at the top of ambulatory care section of the hospital.